(Kiwi Trains, Auckland, New Zealand) - 3D Printable Scale Model NZR & Kiwirail Trains.
Designs printed in typically 1:120/NZ120 Scale, although recently 1:24 has taken over.. This is a Blog to document 3D Printing New Zealand trains & the journey to build the most complete train set. Everything I design for NZ120 is available to buy at http://www.shapeways.com/shops/kiwitrains
For more info on NZ120 visit the forum http://nz120.org

Monday, 8 October 2012

3D Printing, turning a virtual design into reality, the biggest hassle, is ordering the product, and finding out a week later it cannot be printed! And now the basic understanding of what is required is very clearly understood.Future projects will undoubtedly include an EF & DJ, but a more exciting venture for me is to create a printable steam loco shell, streamlined J's and an original K to replace my scratch built shells infact.Current Projects include the following;

DXR CLASS

A nice simple beginners model, currently waiting for the next version to arrive.

DSG CLASS

Design finalized, awaiting a test model to arrive.

DSC CLASS

Design almost complete, awaiting the DSG model to arrive so i can ensure the right internal spacing for a selection of chassis to fit.

NZR ZM WAGON

Almost ready for the printer, imagine a light weight wagon printed in bulk at roughly $20 ea with enough detail to keep a baby boomer rivet counter type entertained for hours on end.

But more importantly the real issue this will hopefully solve is the weight issue, white metal kits are all well and good, until you have say 5-7 heavy CB wagons which any loco would struggle to pull, with this material the weight issue will be solved, and allowing far longer trains.

NZR DA CLASS - Phase 3

My first design, has been rejected by the printing company more times than i care to admit. This sort of rejection can really put a guy off, until one understands even virtual models are capable of "bleeding". Who knew?

5 comments:

Nice work Peter. I like the front page photo.talk about bling! very impressive. I enjoyed the piece on using glass for masking tape. I am still hesitating on painting my DA in fruit salad. I sprayed it with primer. mind you the weather is crap for drying here at present. I have got the north yard paint for my air brush. I am keen to try out my old microwave spray booth. disconnected magnatron and removed door. need a hose outlet to go out window. not sure if it will do the job or not, but hoping it will cope with the lesser amount of air and paint from an airbrush. keep up the great work.

see you have a DSC (FOAMING MADLY) in progress. I was thinking of using a DD13 Tomix chassis for a model of this. see the linkhttp://www.trainweb.org/tomix/tomy/tomy.htm any idea on cost of body? my budget has been shot to pieces this year by my wife going back to re-educate herself and now PSA rearing its head in the orchard.My scratchbuilding efforts are painfully slow, so a body made to order would be very tempting. Picton definitely needs one!

I use a large cardboard box as my spray booth, and i can seal it shut as it drys leaving no chance for random hair and dust to settle on the model. The fruit salad da is something ive not yet done, does look good next to other locos in fruit salad tho! http://www.shapeways.com/model/728049/dsg-shunter-nz120.html not quite a dsc... but could perhaps help unload the ferry until the dsc comes! The DD13 looks ok, would be nice to see how big it is underneath that shell.